RE: [Open Mosque Day] FINAL PUSH FOR OMD - Sunday 10/07/12

[umer habib]

Brother Ahmed, Jazakum Allahu Khairan for taking a lead on this task and organizing it superbly, May Allah reward everyone who participated to help out with this event. Overall I think everything was excellent except we were expecting more about (130 +) non muslims to come in but I think we got about 85+ (According to brother Ahmed's Analysis), Which is still very good. We were prepared and organized more this year than the last few years and this is only happening due to the great volunteer work that we are getting from our own community. Alhumdulilah such a talented, hardworking and participating community. 
 
I would also like to emphasize on more advertising and also we should think about having more than one event of Open mosque and having it regularly. Even for couple hours a week or month.
 
Please everyone do provide your feedback to help it make it even better the next time.
 
WSalam
Umer
 

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Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 22:48:23 -0700
Subject: Re: [Open Mosque Day] FINAL PUSH FOR OMD - Sunday 10/07/12
From: ahme...@gmail.com
To: son...@icoi.net
CC: umer_...@hotmail.com; tamer.ab...@gmail.com; is...@icoi.net; jam...@icoi.net; mhk...@hotmail.com; amall...@gmail.com; suf...@icoi.net; maria...@aol.com; imtia...@gmail.com; vmajmu...@gmail.com; ahmed...@gmail.com; diana...@gmail.com; jymnutr...@hotmail.com; adea...@gmail.com

Assalamu alaikum all, 

I also want to thank you all for an amazing effort today!  I feel so blessed to be a part of this community and working with all of you today reinforced my belief in the amazing talent and dedication that we have in our center.  May Allah accept all our efforts for His sake alone. Ameen.

From the very early morning volunteers that started cleaning every part of the masjid without being asked or waiting for someone else to do it; to the setup crew that made our MPR look so inviting, professional and wonderful to look at.  All the ushers and tour guides showed the beauty of Islam in the way they treated our guests today. 

Our esteemed speakers (Shk. Jamaal, Sr. Maria, Br. Mohy) did a phenomenal job during the two main presentation sessions and I think we covered a huge variety of topics that kept the audience very interested.     

The food was amazing, the masjid was spotless, the volunteers were so welcoming and friendly.  

The success was of course due to the blessing of Allah (swt) but also due to superb teamwork.  So many volunteers contributed behind the scenes to prepare the guest package, the slideshow, the decoration display, the food display, the signage and the marketing material.  Sr. Maria's writing guest names in Arabic was a nice touch too!  Everyone contributed to the setup and cleanup tasks. 

As for the opportunities for improvement, I think the Advertising effort was the most mentioned opportunity for next year.  I think we should consider better ways of advertising future events to maximize guest participation.  One brother mentioned that maybe we should have more personal, in-person visits to invite organizations and churches in the future (versus just emailing them the fliers).  Also distributing more fliers to local businesses and neighbors (door to door) may help.  Your thoughts?  

I look forward to getting your feedback.  As Sr. Sondos mentioned, I will consolidate it into an OMD 2012 Package that can be used in the future.

I will also include hard and soft copies of all the material we created (like program guide, tour topics, survey, Qur'an translation of MPH verses, slide show, street signs, fliers etc.) 

Please forward this to anyone that participated that I may have missed. 

Jazakom Allah Khair!

Wassalam, 

Ahmed Elmalky

On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 9:39 PM, Sondos Kholaki <son...@icoi.net> wrote:

Assalam alaikum everyone,

JazakumAllahu khairan to everybody for a job well done today mashallah. What a talented, passionate, and dedicated group of volunteers we have!

I would like to request from all of you to provide your constructive feedback (what we did well, what we can improve upon for next year) and send it to Brother Ahmed (ahme...@gmail.com). Br. Ahmed, if you could consolidate the feedback into one document that we can save in the ICOI records for next year, that would be wonderful. That way, we don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. We can even include the program, informational handout, and survey in our records for updating the next time. 

Thank you all again. May Allah (swt) accept from all of us; ameen.

Sincerely,

Sondos

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ahmed Elmalky <ahme...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 12:46 PM
Subject: [Open Mosque Day] FINAL PUSH FOR OMD - Sunday 10/07/12
To: Umer Habib <umer_...@hotmail.com>, Sondos Kholaki <skho...@gmail.com>, Tamer Ali <tamer.ab...@gmail.com>, Issa <is...@icoi.net>, Sheikh Jamaal Diwan <jam...@icoi.net>, Michelle Nashef <mhk...@hotmail.com>, Aziz Malley <amall...@gmail.com>, suf...@icoi.net, Maria Khani <maria...@aol.com>, Imtiaz Ali Mohammad <imtia...@gmail.com>, vaidehi majmundar <vmajmu...@gmail.com>, Ahmed Zahran <ahmed...@gmail.com>, Diana Demchenko <diana...@gmail.com>, Yasmeen Ahussain <jymnutr...@hotmail.com>


Assalamu alaikum all, 

Here's a final recap on all tasks pending or almost done: 

VOLUNTEERS DRESS CODE:  Please be sure to dress appropriately (BUSINESS CASUAL)

Please plan to arrive at the masjid by 9AM if possible.  I'll be there earlier inshaAllah. 

• 1.) FOOD:  (Sr. Maria Khani; Sr. Yasmeen)  
• READY
• Are hot and cold drinks (including water bottles) also taken care of? 

• 2.) MULTIMEDIA:  (Br. Imtiaz; Br. Issa; Shk. Jamaal) 
• READY - Final review by ICOI, may have few refinements 

• 3.) "TOUR TOPICS" Document:  (Ahmed Elmalky; Shk.Jamaal; Br. Issa)  
• READY - Completed review by Sr. Sondos and Shk. Jamaal; 
• Final review and printing to be done by Br. Issa

• 4.) SIGNS & EASELS:  (Ahmed Elmalky; Br. Issa)  
• Make LARGE STREET SIGNS  to be attached to tripods and placed on Roosevelt/Truman Intersection
• READY for Printing 
• Make LARGE PROGRAM GUIDE to be placed on easel in the Lobby for Guests to see program highlights when they walk in. 
• Not Yet Done
• Purchase more Easels for the event (Br. Issa will take care of this)
• Not sure if purchased yet ?  (I will bring one that I have at home)

• 5.) ADVERTISING:  (ALL VOLUNTEERS AND ORGANIZERS!)  
• READY - Thank you for everyone that spread the message!!!

• 6.) DECORATIONS:  (Anyone)  
• Don't forget to bring any nice decorations and/or books to display (e.g. 1001 Inventions; Large Quran etc.)
• Sr. Maria will be getting some things including a nice Guest Book for sign-in 

• 7.) NAME TAGS:  (Ahmed Elmalky; Office Staff)  
• Do we have Name Tags in the office or should I buy some? 
• 3 Special color-coded Tags for Speakers (Shk. Jamaal; Sr. Maria; Br. Mohy)  

• 8.) PHOTOGRAPHY:  (NEED VOLUNTEER WITH A GOOD CAMERA)  
• Anyone interested in taking pictures or know someone that can do this?  

• 9.) EVALUATION SURVEY:  (Sr. Diana)  
• In Progress:  sr. Diana is developing an evaluation survey (one-pager)   

• 10.) TRANSLATION:  (Tamer Ali)  
• Br. Tamer is finalizing a one-pager that will have the Translation of all the verses on the walls of the Main Prayer Hall  

• 11.) COPIES:  (Br. Issa; Office Staff)  
• Br. Issa, please let me know how / where we should make copies of documents (i.e. Survey/Questionnaire; Translation; Tour Topics)  

FINAL PUSH!  LET'S GET IT DONE INSHA'ALLAH!  

Jazakom Allah Khair for your SUPERB efforts thus far! 

Wassalam, 

Ahmed Elmalky.

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Best regards,

Sondos K.